14+ Report Examples & Templates in Excel

A good report can be a vital tool in determining the strengths and weaknesses of a team or organization. But a simple yet comprehensive report doesn’t appear out of thin air, they are written carefully enough to ensure that all the essential points are covered accordingly.

Table of Contents:

One way to achieve maximum efficiency with your report is to use a template. Luckily, we have provided a series of report examples and templates below for you to download and use.

Elements of a Good Report

The key to writing a successful report is to determine the questions it needs to answer. What type of information should it include? How can you get your message across more effectively? By defining these aspects of the report, you can identify the components needed to complete it.

1. Cover Page: Always start the report by letting readers know what it is and who wrote it. You can do so by adding a cover page that includes the title of the report, the author, the name of the business being represented, its contact information, and the date of submission. If the document is confidential and should not be shared to unauthorized individuals, this should be noted on the cover page.

2. Contents Page: While this may not be necessary for reports consisting of a few pages, adding a contents page will help readers find the information they are looking for right before diving into the whole document. This makes it easier for people to read and skim through your report using the page numbers given.

3. Executive Summary: Before the report begins, the executive summary will let readers know why they should read your report and how it would be of benefit to them. This consists of a brief description of the report’s purpose along with the bottom-line findings and recommendations or conclusions generated. Avoid giving out too much information, as summaries are meant to be a half-page or less to encourage people to carry on reading.

4. Sections: Reports generally deliver a large amount of information to readers. But because nobody would even be interested to read a lengthy wall of text at a time, it’s important to break your report into sections of similar information to develop a better flow of ideas. This will also make it easy for readers to understand what you are trying to convey without leaving out any important details.

5. Supporting Information: Some types of reports require a series of charts, graphs, statistics, and financial documents to verify the claims made. These supporting documents are usually added in the appendix section of the report to further illustrate a point made in the previous pages.

State Radio Report

Status Report

How to Write a Report

While the structure of a report may vary from company to company, writing the report generally involves the same set of steps. Refer to the stages below and your report-making experience should be a blast.

1. Prepare the necessary documents:

A professional report is typically based on factual data acquired from a survey or research. This will serve as the backbone of your report to help support whatever claims you’re bound to make later on. It can be anything from business notes to the results of your SWOT analysis, as long as it plays a part in the validation of your report.

2. Form a discussion:

Some reports are lengthier than others. That’s because some reports cover a greater area of a topic compared to others. A detailed discussion and analysis is often provided to give readers a deeper insight about the topic in question. Make sure to refer to the supporting documents gathered in the first step so the report stays accurate and true. As long as it remains significant and relevant to the topic, don’t hesitate to include it in your report.

3. Review the report:

When finished, check the report for any points that may have been missed, thoughts that weren’t conveyed well, and grammar or spelling mistakes committed. Errors like these can greatly affect a reader’s understanding and perception toward your report. It’s best to have the document reviewed by a colleague or superior for further opinion. If you’re finally satisfied with what you’ve made, you can email or print the report for submission.

Simple Tips for Creating an Effective Report

Identify your goal: What do you want readers to take away from your report? Knowing the answer to this question will help tailor your content according to what you aim to accomplish by the end of the writing process.

Start early: Never wait until the last minute to make your report. This can lead to all kinds of misfortunes along the way, putting the quality of your report at stake. By working on your report even a week before its due date, you’ll have enough time to gather the necessary details, construct its content, and proofread the entire document.

Look for credible sources: A report must present real and updated information for it to be reliable. Avoid opening a discussion until you can find a credible source to support it.

Use visuals when necessary: Some points are difficult to portray with mere words. Thus, you might want to consider using a visual representation of this data through charts, graphs, and diagrams. Infographics are also encouraged to help communicate key metrics and critical data in the most efficient way possible.

Download a template: Templates can be quite useful especially when making daily, weekly, and monthly reports. This speeds up the writing process, allowing you to produce quality reports at the end of each day.

Types of Reports

A report can come in several different forms. This usually varies according to the duration of which it covers along with the information it carries. Reports written on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis may hold crucial information pertaining to the organization’s financial standing, operational status, or market performance. Common examples of business reports include the following:

Sales Reports: This provides a glimpse of the company’s sales activities over a certain period. A sales report summarizes the trends and activities happening in the sales volume to help executives analyze their performance and make informed decisions for their next move.

Financial Reports: Otherwise known as a financial statement, this is a formal record that communicates the company’s current financial position in the market. A financial report simply shows where the money came from, where it went, and where it is now. This can be useful not just to the organization’s executives, but to investors and clients who might require the data to make important economic decisions.

Analysis Reports: This type of report contains a detailed statistical analysis of a survey or study being tackled. It offers information, analysis, and recommendations about the topic for readers to refer to when making important decision. This can also be used to help managers better understand and improve business performance in order to obtain success.

Report FAQs

What is a report format?

Unlike a written essay, a report covers a topic in a structured, easy-to-follow format to ensure better comprehension. To do so, reports are typically divided into several sections using headings and subheadings to break down a large chunk of text into manageable parts. They can be academic, technical, or business-related in nature. It aims to deliver key information to an audience in a clear and concise manner.

What is the purpose of a report?

A report can be used for a wide variety of functions. It can be written to keep readers informed about a particular matter, to update managers on a project’s current status, or to show the progress made over a period of time. The content and structure of the report will depend on the purpose it serves. Regardless, a report is a vital document that will assist business leaders in making smart decisions for the company’s future.

How can I make a report?

The easiest way to create a report is to use a template that suits your exact purpose. Weekly status reports, for example, are usually prepared by the end of your operations for the week. Since they generally contain the same type of information, using a template will help ensure consistency among the submitted documents. All you would need to do is to customize the template as per company requirements and to note down important events as needed.

So what are you waiting for? Improve your reports today with the help of these templates and examples!